The present invention relates to an extruded plastic cutting assembly and machine. More particularly, it relates to such a cutter assembly and machine specifically intended for cutting profiles, tubing and other extruded plastic products.
Various types of cutting assemblies are used for cutting extruded plastic articles, such as profiles, tubing and the like, to length. In one prior art machine, an on-demand or a continuously-rotating circular cutting arm with a blade attached is used. However, if it is too thin, the cutting blade wanders as it performs its cutting action resulting in an uneven cut. If, on the other hand, the blade is too thick, it produces disadvantageous burrs. In this apparatus, the product is always moving and the cutting arm produces chatter upon rotation. The constant feeding operation is hard on the blade while the blade is engaged with the product, as a result of which the blade cannot be made too thin.
In another type of cutting apparatus, a shearing type cutting action is employed having one stationary blade and one moving blade, one of which is provided with a chamfer or angle. As a result of this construction, one side of the cutting action results in a clean cut while the other side results in an uneven cut which is waste and which, in turn, produces large amounts of scrap.
In many plastic extrusion facilities, the product is cut in as long a length as practical for handling. It is then cut to its smaller finished size "off-line" manually or semi-automatically utilizing circular saws, band saws, presses, etc.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel plastic profile cutting assembly and machine which allows thinner blades to be used and results in very fine cuts without any appreciable waste.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a novel cutting assembly and machine which is relatively simple in design, highly efficient in operation, and relatively easy to manufacture and install.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide such a novel cutting assembly and machine which has a high degree of reliability and flexibility and reduces the need for any manual or semi-automatic "off-line" cutting operations, thus greatly increasing productivity.